Friday, October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween!! I just had a ball taking the kiddos trick or treating tonight. It's just a natural high to see Harrison (my 4 year old) absolutely thrilled to run (not walk) to each house and cheerfully exclaim "Trick or Treat!" and then politely say "THANK YOU!" as he's half running back to the sidewalk to get to the next house. He was on Cloud 9 and I was loving every minute of it. Of course, Catie is too young to enjoy it, but she thoroughly enjoyed watching Harrison. I tell you...life just can't get better! I will shamelessly show a couple pictures of them before we ventured off. :)

Catie was a pretty little flower and Harrison decided to be a farmer (at the very last minute!) Doesn't he look so mischievous? He gets that from his grandpa. ;) And another without Catie's big-mouthed grin.

He just loves his baby sister. I hope that lasts forever!

Now on to the stampin goodies. I had a little time to play today...not much though! I REALLY wanted to patchwork the ornament from Christmas Classics and, I swear, tried a gazillion different techniques for the right look and none of them worked!! I tried stamping in brown staz-on (but it totally bled...huh?!) thought about embossing, but that wouldn't work either...I wanted vibrant color! I then recalled a technique called "Emerging Pastels" from the Workshop Wow DVD us demonstrators have access to purchase. Instead of using pastels though, I used my markers and a blender pen. Here's what I did:

1. Ink up your ornament in Sahara Sand ink and then stamp off and then on to your cardstock

2. Grab your markers and color in the lines to create a patchwork (I used Real Red, Old Olive, and Chocolate Chip)

3. Take a blender pen and pull the color from the markers into the middle of your "patch"

4. Stamp ornament on your Stamp a Majig and position such that image overlies colored image and stamp in Chocolate Chip

And here is what it looks like (except yours will be stamped more accurately!) lol

Finish your card like so!

Here's a close-up of the ornament...pictures just don't do it justice...really, I swear! :)

This card's layout comes directly from Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge. I just love challenges.Some things to note that I did on the card...The card base is Very Vanilla and I sponged the edges with Close to Cocoa ink. I then layered on top a piece of chocolate paper from the Ski Slope dsp and aged it by rubbing my Very Vanilla craft pad directly all over it. See the little chocolate looking ribbon holding the large red grosgrain in place? That's actually the Caramel gingham ribbon and I colored over the middle part with the Close to Cocoa marker. I also rubbed on the greeting from the new Season of Cheer rub-ons.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

I am so proud to say that I voted today! I must admit though, the constant phonecalls reminding me that I haven't voted yet (what the...?!?!!?) hastened me getting my butt in gear and getting to a poll site. ;) I proudly wore my "I Voted" sticker throughout the day. I'm content to know that I participated in THE historical election of my lifetime.

But enough with the politics already...more importantly, I stamped! *grin* I had a new set unmounted just dying for me to play with and inspiration from some Stamping magazine. Don't ask me why I buy these card magazines...not like Splitcoast and other blogs don't provide enough inspiration as is AMIRITE?!

And a close up of the ornaments...I just couldn't get a good picture showing them raised and glittery!You know, I kind of spent quite a bit of time on this. Really doesn't look like it though! I'm very pleased to say too, all supplies on this card are Stampin' Up! I resisted the urge to emboss/add crystals/use contraband paraphernalia. lol I like that phrase "contraband paraphernalia." Sounds so illegal and naughty! :)

Anyway, I took my real red, old olive, and chocolate chip markers and colored the dots on the Polka Dot background stamp. You know, it's not as bad as it seems! It goes really fast and looks awesome. I also stamped the ornaments with the same colors and took a Blender pen and blended the colors in. I didn't use any excess ink...so simple and looks really cool. Dotted the little middles with the white gel pen and then put a spot of dazzling diamonds on each. The "Season's Greetings" sentiment is from the Holiday Happenings bundle (level 3 hostess).

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Well, there are only a few days left in October. It's coming down to the wire and it's the absolute last chance for you to take advantage of Stampin' Up!'s Birthday Promotion. But you are getting into the mindset of Christmas you say??? NO PROBLEM!!! I decided to "think outside the box" today and use my absolute favorite set from this special, Crazy for Cupcakes and make it Christmasy. No WAY, you say!! Oh yes...yes indeed way! :)

LOL!! What do you think?! I think it turned out pretty cool myself! Who wouldn't want a Christmas tree made out of cupcakes? Deeeeelicious! So go! Go take advantage of the special before you regret buying it later! Be sure to visit my website and click "Shop Now" to order. ;)

So not only is it running out of time for that awesome promotion...Halloween is just a few short days away! WOOHOO! I just love Halloween...and the Halloween candy loves me too! Anyway, I wanted to make little gifts for my son's pre-k class to hand out Friday. Remember watching that video of Shelli from my post here where she shows how to make table settings? Remember the pillow box from acetate? Oh yeah, I went there. Here it is close up made with rub-ons, designer paper, and the Batty for You stamp set.

Luckily, I only had to make about 15 of these. I would NOT mass produce these suckers. My acetate paper was really tricky to bend on the folds and I kind of had to muscle these. I won though! I wanted a cute little bucket for him to carry them in to school with so I used a little Spooky rub-on on the container (which should look familiar!)

So simple...so cute!

Ok, so something not-so-cute happened to me this morning while I was in my office. As I was stepping out of it, this is what I saw...

Yes...it's a scorpion!! EWWW IN MY HOUSE!!! I swear, I was doing the holy_crap_what_am_I_gonna_do dance! (After I took the picture LOL) It's very similar to the pee-pee dance. I decided to attack it with a broom and try and sweep it out the front door. That little sucker was whipping his tail at me and hauling "tail" (literally) in the wrong direction. I think I said out loud, "oh no you di'nt!" It therefore got a very vigorous sweeping right out the front door. My shoe then caused it's untimely demise. Spoooooky indeedy! I hope I don't see another one of those any time soon!

Monday, October 27, 2008

Ok, not in a totally bad sense, I mean it's legal and all! There has been a stamp set that I occasionally see that is not Stampin' Up! and I am totally and completely drawn to it. Particularly the bear image...IT'S SO STINKIN CUTE!!! Anyway, when I finally found out the maker and where it was sold I just had to take a peek...clearly for educational purposes only. *wink* Do you ever look at a stamp set and immediately think, OMG that's totally xx person! Well, that's what this stamp set did and I just had to have it. This was impulse shopping at it's finest. Luckily I don't impulse shop at Anthropologie too much but that's a completely different story! :) So I got the stamp set in and had to play right away. This card is for my very good friend Valeria. That girl's always got my back! She will pick things up when she knows that I just neeeed it and just this weekend at Regionals, she got my bagged lunch. She picked the one with the chocolate chip cookies instead of raisins...she knows me. She owes me too! LOL That's totally inside joke...sorry! Here's what I made for her.

It's stamped very simply, but I wanted the message to get across. What's the buzz?...SOOOO appropriate for our conversations! I'm sure you have a girlfriend out there that you like to gab with. :) This bee is stinkin cute but the bear is even cuter! Take a peek at the stamp set here at All that Scraps.

I also got a wild hair and decided I wanted to try my hand at making some scissor charms. I only had enough materials to make two so I made the extra to give to Valeria with this card. Here's both of them together.

This has soo much bling I just am in love with it. Can you tell from the picture that even the bottoms of the charms have Swarovski crystals? The picture just doesn't do it justice I swear! :) Here's a close up though.

I've decided to make this for all of my downline that attended Regionals with me...which is just about my entire downline, LOL! I hope they like it! I'm mailing it with their DVD of photos I took. :)

Thanks so very much for stopping by! Have you stamped something today. :)

Yes, you read that right! You know that Stampin' Up! exclusive die for the Big Shot called the Scallop Envelope? Did you know you can make a box from it? I kid you not! Here, I'll refresh your memory on what it looks like.I've seen it made on quite a few blogs and just had to try one out for myself. What really inspired me to do so was Lynn Put's challenge in celebration of her 40th birthday. Happy Birthday Lynn!! Her requirement was that the item had to be a 3d or altered item and have BLING! I kindly obliged...Not sure if you can tell, but all sides of the box, I stamped the Stitched background in Versamark, poured on some Heat n Stick and then quickly doused with Dazzling Diamonds. Looks pretty cool in person! Definitely blingy! Also, a while back, I bought these clearanced wedding tins from Target...something like 20 for $18. I filled these with sweet treats (Sweet Tarts) and decorated them up to put inside the box. I also added a little bling. ;)

I wrapped some scalloped edging around the bottom of the tin. How'd I get that you ask? Well, I cut a thin strip of dsp from the Holiday Happenings bundle and ran it through my Big Shot just enough to cover the scallop edging on the Pennant die. I had a ton extra of those in Pink Pirouette from another project and crimped those and used that as a little paperfetti inside the box. This project just tickled me pink! heheh

Saturday, October 25, 2008

San Antonio regionals was definitely worth all those exclamation points! And if you're old enough to remember...2 snaps and a circle...yeah, I'm dating myself again. Me and my crew FINALLY made it home after having to exit the freeway completely, twice in both San Antonio and Austin because of accidents. Oi vey...a trip that should have been 1.5 hours was 3! Was all worth it though. :)I've come back from Regionals refreshed, motivated, and swimming with card and project ideas. Unfortunately, my brain is mush tonight from excitement and traffic overload that I wasn't able to stamp anything. I admit it, I crashed hard when I put my son to bed and my hubby had to wake me up and get me out of his bed! I do have a couple of things to share though! This first picture is one of the cards on Stampin' Up!'s display board featuring the stamp set Scandinavian Season. I swear, I keep talking myself out of buying this but I'm liking it more and more!

I think it's striking, but yet so simple AND duplicatable! I also love that sentiment. hehehehe :) That sentiment is also from the mini, by the way, in the Season of Cheer rub-ons.

Now, last but certainly not least, was a photo of one of the highlights of the trip. We arrived the day before our Saturday regional and had just checked into the hotel and were milling around the lobby when we run into Shelli and her crew! They had just finished the Friday session and they were chatting it up in the lobby as well. So what did we do...us crazy stamping fanatics that we are?? You guessed it... "SHELLI CAN WE HAVE A PICTURE WITH YOU!?!" She very kindly obliged. :)Now, in my 4 years of photo opportunities to take with Shelli, I've never taken one. Of course the one time that I finally get a picture with her, I'm wearing my glasses!!! Wraaaahhh! I've had pink eye in both of my eyes and have been stuck in 4-eye mode for the past week. Whatever! I'm thrilled that we all got a picture together. Valeria, on the right, is looking over at Jaron...he's such a cutie!

Friday, October 24, 2008

In case you are wondering who Shelli is...well, she is the Founder and ultimate enabler of Stampin' Up! I've had the privilege of seeing her speak AND stamp for the past 4 years. So tomorrow afternoon, I'm heading down to San Antonio to the Stampin' Up! regional event to:

hang out with 6 great friends (in 2 rooms, might I add!)

stamp with 100s of like-minded SU lovers :)

learn new techniques as well as ways to use new product

feverishly take pictures of all the display boards

SEE SHELLI!!

Ok, so I'm re-reading this and it sounds like I'm a stalker and/or fanatic. I'm not! I just have an immense admiration and respect for her! She recently started her own blog and, I must say, she's so REAL in what she writes and shares with everyone. Her blog is definitely aptly named...So Shelli. You can visit her here.

She was recently on a local station there in Utah filming ways to use the Big Shot and beautiful place settings. Since I will be seeing her Saturday, I felt it appropriate that you should see her too!! :) Here is the video she shot and I am SOOO CASEing her projects!

If you are interested in replicating anything you've seen, the full supplies as well as pictures can be viewed at their website here.

Sorry if I don't have a Sauls original™ (by the way, that's not a real trademark...I just think it's so silly and fun!)

I'll be back Saturday evening and hopefully I'll have something then! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Love those two colors together! I've been itching to use the ice-skating couple from the Winter Post Stamp set in the mini...LOVE THIS STAMP SET!! Do you have it yet? Well you should! Anywho, I have a baggie of Felt Flurries from the mini that's been collecting dust. I thought it might be odd combining the two, but I think it works! Also, I wanted to participate in a couple challenges. :) The first being the color challenge from Splitcoast...using the colors Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip, and Kiwi Kiss. The second challenge (and one I've never played in) is Julee's Mojo Madness Sketch.

Unfortunately, there are no pink snowflakes in the Felt Flurries ensemble....NO PROBLEM!! After playing around with them for a bit, I found a small flat bowl, put in a little water and then added a few drops of Pink Pirouette re-inker. I then dunked my white felt flurry into the pink pink tinged water. Oh yes...I have my pink snowflake now!

After a little bit of drying, I touched it up with more pink color using my aquapainter. I also sponged, with a dauber, a bit of chocolate chip ink all over...to kind of muck things up. :) So here is the card I made with it!

I am loving those little crystals...can ya tell?! I put them on the snowflake as well as on the skaters image. You can't really tell, but I also 'mucked' up the pink ribbon with the dauber and Chocolate Chip ink. I just think all this pink looks so luscious! I decided to add to the card by embellishing an ornament with the same color scheme. Here's a picture of the two together.

I used my Big Shot and one of the little Snowflakes dies and got a snowflake. Added more crystals OF COURSE and put it in the bulb. I then poured in some of the white glitter from Chunky Essentials for more sparkle. The "merry and bright" sentiment is a chocolate rub-on from the Seasonal Saying rub-ons. Too bad these ornaments aren't very photogenic. :\ Looks neato in person!

Thanks for hanging out with me. I also want to THANK YOU sooo much for all the very kind comments. I'm so glad to hear that you liked my little mini-tutorial...it just gives me warm fuzzies. :)

Monday, October 20, 2008

...a Christmas gift basket! That's my best attempt at coming up with a clever title for this blog entry, hehe. The other day while I was perusing through Michael's, I came upon the cutest little white tin basket and it was only 2 bucks! It literally was screaming at me to "take me home and embellish me...PLEASE!" Ok, probably not, but it was a good excuse to buy it at the time. I knew that I wanted to play with my punches and decided to make some holly. I thought that I could just easily do this with an oval punch and the scallop edge but that....didn't work. :) Anyway this post will be long and with lots of pictures if you are interested in seeing how I made my holly leaves. Here's the picture of the tin basket though!

A close-up of the holly

And I just had to make a card to match!

A picture of them both together

I think this would make a cute gift for someone. You could fill the basket with candies or cookies, or ...a gift from Tiffany's? Throw me a bone...a girl can dream! :)

Cut your cardstock to 1 3/4" x 3 1/2" and fold in half lengthwise like so

Take your shiny new 1 3/4" circle punch and slid folded cardstock in punch such that 1/4 of the inside is not shown (make sure that the top of the fold is NOT in the center of your punch) Punch on both ends.Open up your cardstock and it should look like this

Then grab your 3/4" circle punch and center it along one of the sides and punch a small sliver out like soMake 2 more additional punches on either side rounding out the straight edges

Do the same on the other side and you end up with this!

I hope this is a technique new to you because I have never seen it before! I'm sure it's been done though...what hasn't?!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Remember hearing that when you were a kid? That was only a few short years ago for me...LOL! Yarightsure! Anyway, I want to start the post off with a funny video appropriate to the subject.

Mad props to Kathy for telling me about this. I think it's hilarious! Now I don't condone drinking beer *cough*

ANYWAY...I do have a point to all of this! :) Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge #38! Check out the samples, the featured cupcake sampler, and everyone's submissions in the comments!! They are some super cute and clever cards. Taylor made a call for "clever, creative, and cute" creations and here's what I came up with.

Get it?!?! *crickets* Ok...how about a closeup? :)

I think it's kind of cute! I just love the look on the snowman on the left's face. It seriously makes me LOL. A very special thanks to Taylor for the sketch of this card and more importantly the task to make it clever! I certainly gave myself a chuckle when I decided what I was going to make my snowman do. :)

Friday, October 17, 2008

It's silver baby!!! I've been itching to do another challenge...I swear this challenge thing gets addictive!! Do you find yourself craving the day when the next challenge is posted? I mean, not like I don't have a gazillion other things to do...I need to do a Challenge like my 4 year old needs candy. Anyway! I'm back to loving my Crystal Effects again...see previous thread here for that story! I love glitter. I love Crystal Effects. Mix them together (Stampin' Up!) style and you've got your own version of Stickles. So I decided to take Beate's weekend challenge, my love of glitter and crystal effects, and snowflakes and mix it all together in a big gooey mess! Boy did I have fun with this one. :)

Here is what was concocted.

Oooh there are so many things going on here! I have these empty applicator tubes (that I buy at Hobby Lobby for $.57) that make GREAT little mini bottles for making your own stickles. I poured in some Crystal Effects and some of the light blue glitter from the Fine Cosmo stack in the SU catalog. Mix that up together real well, and applied that all over my stamped snowflakes. Here's a picture of what it looked like in the bottle. (If you don't have the color glitter that you want, just add dazzling diamonds instead and ink refill in any of the 48+6 SU colors for matching stickles!!!)

I then grabbed my Snowflakes cuttlebug folder and threw that in the Big Shot and embossed the Bashful Blue cardstock. I took a sponge dauber and lightly added craft white all over the embossed image for contrast. I also embossed the bottom bashful blue piece with the Swiss dots folder and then gently rubbed my Encore Silver pad all over just the raised dots. It looks so cool in person...like little metal dots! Here's a closeup.

I couldn't resist those Swarovski crystals again, they just needed something else. :) Sorry for the long-windedness of the post but I really enjoyed making this! Hope you enjoyed it!

*BIG DISCLAIMER* The following images are almost identical replicas to cards I have seen on my favorite blogs. These are "the chosen ones" and will be reproduced en masse at my upcoming Stamp a Stacks on Sunday and Thursday. I have not submitted these in a competition! I merely love the cards and don't like "reinventing the wheel," because simply, I just don't have the time! Thank you to these ladies for their beautiful work (click on their name to see original artwork):

Did I mention that I take zero, zilch, nada credit in creating these? Just want to make it clear! :)

So on Sunday afternoon and Thursday evening...IF you signed up for the class...we will be making these cards with matching envelopes.Card 1:Card 2Card 3Card 4Card 5It's going to be a smashing good time!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to have a "Sauls original"™ tomorrow evening.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

I hope you are getting into the Christmas spirit after yesterday's post. I know that I sure am! I decided to stray from making a card tonight...well, for the most part. :) I wanted to make a nice Christmas box to put notecards in...very similar to the one us demonstrators made at Convention. I also wanted to finally embellish a little spice jar I've had forever from Ikea to match. And Voila!

Now, I think this little ensemble would make a GREAT hostess gift. Speaking of...have you booked a party yet? What's a better way to get into the festive spirit than inviting your friends and family over for food, fun, and stamping? :) Book now before I eat all of your whoppers!! heheheSee that snowflake on the rosette ribbon? Well, I had stamped little snowflakes from the Holiday Happenings bundle all over the box and thought I'd bring a larger snowflake atop the ribbon. So I went fishing through my latest box of Stampin' Up! goodies and found my snowflake die...YAY! Proceed to open it up and found I had purchased the wrong (very large snowflake) one...OOPS! No biggie! I took a closer look at it and realized I could just trim out the outer edges.

Here's what it's supposed to look like...Pretty, huh? :) Can you see how I trimmed it now? Well, I just did a happy dance when I realized that it layered perfectly over the rosette...again, it's the little things. ;) I then decided that a snowflake needed to look...well...snowy. I put chunky white glitter all over it and finished it with a large brad from the Pretties kit. Allow me to show you a closer photo of the snowflake!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

....ever again! I have this weird obsession with my Crystal Effects, aside from the fact that I love it. Do you ever find that the tip, or barrel, of the thing likes to get clogged? I hate that! I'm just about obsessive compulsive when I'm about to put it away after use. Seriously...I have to knock it on the desk 3 times (so the excess can begin it's journey down), squeeze it 3 times to blow out any stragglers sticking to the top, and then blow on it 3 times to push any resistant crystal effects back down home to its glossy haven. I then squeeze it a few more times then slowly place it next to my ear (while still squeezing) so that I can hear that it's airway is clear. LOL I then quickly place the lid on top...because, in my head, I think this creates a vacuum, and rush it to it's very upright home on the counter. Well I don't know what I did tonight, but my bottle of Crystal Effects must have thought my breath was kickin' serious flavor because it spat at me while I was on my mouth to mouth routine!! It tasted BAAAAD. My tongue feels numb actually. Maybe that's just the saliva glued to my tongue...

Ok, enough with the jibber jabber. Here's the card that I used my beloved Crystal Effects on.

I got home tonight and just had the urge to watercolor. It's like therapy...not that I need that! I do enjoy watercoloring though. :) And hey! The wide Aquapainter is on special this month!At any rate, there's a lot going on with this card. It really sparkles in person! It's a shame I can't capture the little Swarovski crystals sparkling in the picture. Maybe this picture is a little better close up?

I like my craft pads juicy, and the Vanilla is anything but. I found a use for it!! I pulled it out and rubbed it all over my Artichoke cs. I LOVE the way this looked! I was just thrilled to pieces...I know, it's the little things... Anywho, I also adhered the Riding Hood Red tafetta ribbon atop the Chocolate felt ribbon from the Alpine ribbon originals. The image was watercolored with markers and the Aquapainter. I wanted my snow really white, so I got out my White gel pen and colored in my snow. I then had to have some sparkle with a teensy bit of dazzling diamonds sporadically placed. The "Season's Greetings" sentiment is a rub-on from the level 3 hostess Holiday Happenings Bundle. Finally, I used the distressing tool from my Cutter Kit to fray the edges of the artichoke cs. Here are a list of the goods: